Preface
Autodesk Inventor is an industry-leading, computer-aided design (CAD) application for 3D mechanical design, simulation, visualization, and documentation. In this book, we aim to bridge the gap between the fundamentals of this software and the more advanced features, workflows, and environments this powerful design solution has to offer.
Using cookbook-style recipes, you will gain a comprehensive understanding and practical experience in creating dynamic 3D parts, assemblies, and complete designs. We will also explore a variety of topics, including automation and parametric techniques, collaboration tools, creating sheet metal designs, design accelerators such as frame generators, surface modeling tools, advanced assembly, and simplification tools, iLogic, and finite element analysis.
By the end of this book, you will not only be able to use the advanced functionality within Autodesk Inventor, but you will also have the practical experience to deploy these techniques in your own projects and workflows.
Who this book is for
This book is aimed at CAD engineers, mechanical/design engineers, and product designers who have a basic understanding and experience of Inventor fundamentals. It aims to guide and coach you beyond the basics and into the advanced functionality of the software and environments within it.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Inventor Part Modeling – Sketch, Work Features, and Best Practices, explains the best practices involved in part modeling with the uses of sketches and all the work features covered. Then combine your knowledge of these best practices to complete a modeling challenge of a complex part.
Chapter 2, Advanced Design Methodologies and Strategies, discusses how and when to apply different design methodologies and strategies in Inventor, and the merits of each. You will learn and gain experience with practical examples of how each can be used. This chapter will also cover how to utilize external and non-native CAD data in Inventor.
Chapter 3, Driving Automation and Parametric Modeling in Inventor, discusses how to implement levels of automation into both parts and assemblies, by understanding the importance and use of equations and parameters to drive configurations. You can copy features across parts with iFeatures, automate the mating of parts with iMates, and create configurations using iParts and iAssemblies. Finally, you will learn how to link external spreadsheets and parameters to drive models in Inventor.
Chapter 4, Freeform, Surface Modeling, and Analysis, explains how to create surface geometry in various forms and how to use the freeform modeling tools within Inventor to create organic and complex forms. The chapter will break down the various ways surfaces can be created within Inventor. You will also learn about surface validation techniques and how to surface model in the context of an assembly.
Chapter 5, Advanced CAD Management and Collaboration – Project Files, Templates, and Custom Properties, focuses on some of the important admin that’s required to deliver successful projects with Inventor. It explains how to manage project files and best practices, how to set up templates and design standards for a company in both parts, assembly and the drawing environment, and how to manage content center libraries. In most cases, these areas are overlooked, but successful data management and organization are essential to delivering projects, on time and within budget. Engineering managers and CAD managers will find this topic of use most of all.
Chapter 6, Inventor Assembly Fundamentals – Constraints, Joints, and BOMS, discusses the fundamentals of successful assembly design and techniques. It will also cover how to effectively use constraints and joints in an assembly and the best practices, and how to use, edit, and customize BOMs in Inventor, including placement in the drawing environment and annotating a GA.
Chapter 7, Model and Assembly Simplification with Simplify, Derive, and Model States, covers techniques for simplifying geometry in a part and assembly to aid in the management of large assemblies and assist in the collaboration of models with external suppliers, customers, and stakeholders. Particular focus will be spent on model states, which were released in 2022 and superseded the traditional level of detail and positional representations of older releases.
Chapter 8, Design Accelerators – Specialised Inventor Tool Sets for Frames, Shafts, and Bolted Connections, explains how to use design accelerators for a range of product types, and how to create frameworks, gears, shafts, and bolted connections within the assembly environment. This is a key skill set in Inventor that allows for automation and extreme efficiency with workflows. The conventional means of creating these types of products or adding them to existing assemblies is very time-consuming. Engineers and designers will greatly appreciate the value that using the design accelerators provides when the situation demands it.
Chapter 9, Design Communication – Inventor Studio, Animation, Rendering, and Presentation Files, explains that successful design is usually measured on how well the benefits and the solution are understood by stakeholders; therefore, being able to demonstrate these in 3D within Inventor is highly important. Designers need to be able to render, animate, and sometimes quickly annotate parts and assemblies to communicate key design changes, updates, and showcase product features. This chapter focuses on how a designer can implement renderings, explode views with presentation files, and create animations. This chapter also focuses on some of the more basic skills of model manipulation.
Chapter 10, Inventor iLogic Fundamentals – Creating Process Automation and Configurations, gives a basic introduction to automation with iLogic and what can be achieved with this. It provides an overview of the environment and practical examples of iLogic in use. You will then progress and create several iLogic rules and use these, before finally creating an iLogic form, controlling the configuration of an assembly. This is a key chapter for enabling you to automate functions, model updates, and changes within the software.
Chapter 11, Inventor Stress and Simulation – Workflow and Techniques, gives an introduction to the stress analysis environment in Inventor, how this works, what is achievable with the standard stress analysis, and workflows to adopt and various types of analysis. It also discusses design and how important it is that designers are able to test and validate their designs, prior to manufacture. Having a basic understanding of the essentials of FEA within Inventor gives the designer the key advantage of being able to iterate and test designers quicker and more efficiently, instead of having to rely on external stress analysis engineers all of the time.
Chapter 12, Sheet Metal Design – Comprehensive Methodologies to Create Sheet Metal Products, provides an introduction to the sheet metal environment within Inventor and a detailed walk-through of the functionality and methods you can use to create sheet metal features. This chapter will also show how you can bring final sheet metal parts into the drawing environment to add detail with bend tables, hole tables, and folded and unfolded flat patterns for export.
Chapter 13, Inventor Professional 2023 – What’s New?, talks about what’s new in Inventor 2023. You will learn all of the new features and additions to Inventor Professional 2023 in both the part, assembly, and drawing environments.
To get the most out of this book
This book is aimed at advanced users of Autodesk Inventor Professional. It is recommended that you have taken part in an essentials training course at an Autodesk Authorised Training Center or a similar course before proceeding, or that you have sufficient experience with the basic fundamentals of Autodesk Inventor.
You will need a working and licensed copy of Autodesk Inventor Professional 2023 to complete the recipes in this book, and a Windows 10 operating system. Post-2023 versions of Inventor will work with the recipe practice files. Internet access will be required for the initial download of recipe files for this book.
Autodesk Inventor 2023 System Requirements: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirements-for-Autodesk-Inventor-2023.html
Download the example code files
You can download the Inventor lesson files for this book from https://packt.link/w6Kik
Download the color images
We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots and diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://packt.link/tnAxK.
Conventions used
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: “To begin this recipe, you will need to create a New Standard (mm) Assembly .iam file and have it open.”
A block of code is set as follows:
Parameter("CATL-SIDE PLATE #1:1", "CATH")=CATLL
Parameter("CATL-SIDE PLATE #1:1", "AMOUNTR")=Ceil((Parameter("CATL-SIDE PLATE #1:1", "CATH")+32.5)/275)
Parameter("CATL-SIDE PLATE #1:1", "SPACINGR")=Parameter("CATL-SIDE PLATE #1:1", "CATH")/Parameter("CATL-SIDE PLATE #1:1", "AMOUNTR")Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see on screen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “Select Finish Sketch and then repeat this operation on the other side.”
Tips or Important Notes
Appear like this.
Sections
In this book, you will find several headings that appear frequently (Getting ready, How to do it..., How it works..., There’s more..., and See also).
To give clear instructions on how to complete a recipe, use these sections as follows:
Getting ready
This section tells you what to expect in the recipe and describes how to set up any software or preliminary settings required for the recipe.
How to do it…
This section contains the steps required to follow the recipe.
How it works…
This section usually consists of a detailed explanation of what happened in the previous section.
There’s more…
This section consists of additional information about the recipe in order to make you more knowledgeable about the recipe.
See also
This section provides helpful links to other useful information for the recipe.
Get in touch
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